Sydney beaches stay closed after three shark attacks in two days

SYDNEY — Beaches in Sydney’s northern suburbs remained closed Tuesday after a man in his 20s was bitten by a shark — marking the city’s third shark attack in two days. Heavy rainfall has left the water murky, creating conditions that may attract sharks.

Emergency services responded to a beach in Manly on Monday evening after reports that a surfer had been attacked, New South Wales police said in a statement.

Eyewitness Max White said another surfer kept the victim alive by using his surfboard’s leg rope as a makeshift tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

“He was breathing, but he was unconscious, and we just… tried to keep him awake, as well as all the other people around us. Everyone was involved,” White told state broadcaster ABC.

Paramedics treated the man for serious leg injuries and transported him to the hospital in critical condition.

All beaches in the Northern Beaches area — a council region along Sydney’s northern coastline — will remain closed until further notice, police confirmed.

The attacks came after several days of heavy rain, which caused runoff into Sydney’s harbor and nearby beaches. The murky water created ideal conditions for bull sharks, the species believed to be responsible for the incidents. Bull sharks are known to thrive in brackish water.

“If anyone’s thinking of heading into the surf this morning anywhere along the Northern Beaches, think again,” Steven Pearce, CEO of Surf Life Saving NSW, told reporters Tuesday.

“We have such poor water quality that’s really conducive to some bull shark activity.”

On Monday, a 10-year-old boy escaped injury after a shark knocked him off his surfboard and bit a chunk out of it. A day earlier, another boy was left in critical condition after being bitten at a city beach.

Australia records about 20 shark attacks per year, with fewer than three resulting in fatalities, according to conservation group data. These numbers remain far lower than the number of drownings that occur on Australian beaches each year.

-Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Himani Sarkar/Reuters